Fret denting on my 2019 SE

[PatrickBL]

I have PRS Custom 24 SE that is about a year old that I purchased new from Sweetwater. I love this guitar and play it as a hobby in my home. The only thing I changed after receiving it was to replace the strings with .010-.046 D'Addario XL's with a wound G. I have these on some of my other guitars and 10's just work for me. I also replaced the tuners with the good brass peg locking PRS tuners. The problem I'm experiencing is fret denting on the first 3 frets below the nut. The guitar still plays but I now notice string damage on the G string. I have other guitars I play regularly, a Rickenbacker 12 and 6 string, Fender Telecaster and a Taylor acoustic all with good quality 10 gauge strings and I'm not experiencing any fret denting on those guitars. I do play a lot of open chords and hammer on's and I'm kind of a string masher. Any suggestions or similar experiences? This is my favorite guitar to play and I'm concerned about this wear. S/N S19760

 

[aphantomvaper]

Call the PTC. IDK about the SE fret wire but PRS wants a guitar to be playable for 10 to 20 years before any refretting. These are the words of Paul himself.

 

[Draconomics]

That's interesting. Never noticed any issue with SE fret wire myself. Even my '06 Singlecut has little fret wear after 14 years or noticeable string damage.

I'd say you got two options: Since its Sweetwater, they will help you more than anyone to get a replacement, or we will need to repair the frets as long as the dents are not severe. I might try option 2 first. Even on the new SE's I bought last year, I did full finish work on the frets because despite my praise of SE frework, it aint perfect and it takes a little elbow grease to get em feeling slick. On my 35th, also from SW, out of the box I had a lifting fret and a some were a bit...crusty. If the dents are too severe, you cant really polish that out, so that will be a wire replacement and you might as well have SW help you out. I can tell you from experience they will work with you to compensate for a repair bill or replacing the unit.

Just a little PSA, I know some of us have kung-fu grips on that neck and mash those strings like taters, I did once too, but you dont need to. If you learn to ease up on the finger pressure a bit, your frets will thank you and your hands will feel much more relaxed.

 

[Kingfisher76032020]

I am not 100% sure on this but I am almost positive all PRS guitars core or SE use nickel fret wire. According to Paul, this is the same reason he uses brass in everything he can. PRS youtube page has a video with Paul explaining that he chooses the hardest nickel wire he can source for his guitars because it matters to him. Nickel resonates better. Steel wears better. You might want to look into nickel strings. I did search this before posting and it does say PRS use hardened nickel not SS.
Most strings are SS, therefore harder then nickel. Get nickel strings, they cost more and wear faster, but wear your frets slower.

 

[SinSir]

Yes PRS uses nickel frets

 

[Draconomics]

Most strings are SS, therefore harder then nickel. Get nickel strings, they cost more and wear faster, but wear your frets slower.

Sorta. Most typical strings (say EB Stinkies or D'addario xl) are nickel (plated) wound over steel. You can get pure nickel strings (nickel wind/nickel core), supposedly a warmer sound. There exist SS strings, but typically as flatwounds for jazz dudes, and not very common among most players. Ive tried SS flatties a couple times. Pretty cool, very slick feeling.

 

[Kingfisher76032020]

Sorta. Most typical strings (say EB Stinkies or D'addario xl) are nickel (plated) wound over steel. You can get pure nickel strings (nickel wind/nickel core), supposedly a warmer sound. There exist SS strings, but typically as flatwounds for jazz dudes, and not very common among most players. Ive tried SS flatties a couple times. Pretty cool, very slick feeling.

Yes but he did mention the G string which would typically be unwound SS unless specifically purchased. Whats surprising over the years the higher strings GBE tend to wear frets faster because of this reason and they tend to corrode and send of microscopic metallic particles of steel and rust that sand away nickel frets. Personally I have owned a PRS for 17 years and played it regularly and didnt use nickel strings and never has fret problems but then again your mileage may vary.

 

[Fuku]

I’m a string masher too, but have been trying to do better over the past several years. I had a core model I did that to, same fret too. It’s not enough to effect the play though, so it’s not really a big deal. I think the other reason, besides my heavy hand, was using EB colbalt strings. The colbalt is harder than nickel. Don’t use those no more.

 

[SinSir]

I’m a string masher too, but have been trying to do better over the past several years. I had a core model I did that to, same fret too. It’s not enough to effect the play though, so it’s not really a big deal. I think the other reason, besides my heavy hand, was using EB colbalt strings. The colbalt is harder than nickel. Don’t use those no more.

I don't think the frets on core and se are the same. They are both nickel, but from I've read they are different. I've been a bit over obsessive about this in the past trying to find out. I chalked it off to its the same spec material but Asian vs core supplier.

 

[Tim S]

Pure nickel wound strings will deform before your frets do (That’s why I use them — including a wound-G). But plain string are usually steel, so those can still induce fret wear.